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The big picture
The Academy hosted two splendid events during December, the first of which was our tribute to Dame Judi Dench which was an enormous success, and has now been broadcast on BBC1. Many thanks to Bea Ballard, Chair of our Television Committee and Executive Producer of the show, and particular thanks also to Clare Brown and Donna Bell for all their brilliant organisation.
At the dinner given in her hon- our at the Academy on December 11, Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal daz- zled the assembled company of members with her brilliant and witty extemporised after dinner speech. It was a memorable evening and we thank Sue Vale who single-handedly organised the whole thing with a little help from me.
As some of you will have read in the press, our Film Awards this year are back on BBC 1. We are enormously grateful to Sky, who have broadcast the Awards for the last couple of years, for helping us build them into what we believe is a truly international event.
I am very happy to report that Amanda and I have succeeded in negotiating a contract with the BBC which means that our awards will be on BBC 1 for the next three years.
This year’s show will again be produced independently by Initial with whom we have worked for the last couple of years. We strongly believe that continuity is all important, and it has been a great pleasure to work together with the same team on three consecutive awards ceremonies.
Stephen Fry (who I have to say is becoming something of BAFTA groupie these days, having hosted our Tribute to Judi Dench in December and conducted a Q&A with Robert Altman after the screening of Gosford Park) will compere the
awards again, as he did so brilliantly last year.
There have been quite a lot of problems for us this year, not least the fact that Monsters Inc, the most successful animated film of all time, is opening at the Odeon Leicester Square three weeks before our ceremony. The film is distributed by Buena Vista and produced by Pixar, the company that made the Toy Story films.
We had to do a lot of persuad- ing to hold on to our dates at the Odeon, at a time when Monsters Inc would undoubtedly have been playing to very big audi- ences. We are enormously grate- ful to Richard Segal at Odeon and Daniel Battsek at Buena Vista for the help they have given in mak- ing all this possible.
We must also thank the Metropolitan Police who do so much to make it possible for us to hold our awards at the Odeon. Last year we managed to get all 1,800 people from the Odeon to the Grosvenor House in less than twenty minutes, and much of that was to do with the excep- tional co-operation we had from the police.
There have been some worries following the nightmare of September 11 that some over- seas nominees might not wish to travel, and this is still a concern. But given the number of leading American actors that have passed through London recently to support the opening of their new films, it is beginning to look hopeful that more will come than will not.
Once again we have received an enormous amount of support from distributors and PR companies - more screenings, I think, than ever before and video tapes pouring through the door over the Christmas holiday. Our particular thanks to them for all the effort that they make to see that members have every oppor- tunity to see qualifying films. Once again it promises to be an exciting February.
HRH The Princess Royal
Extracts from the former Academy President’s speech on being presented with an Honorary Lifetime Membership
Simon Relph, Chairman of Council
Just to have had the ability to shake hands with people like Alfred Hitchcock and Sir Charlie Chaplin was patently something I would never have expected to have done...
It has been absolutely fasci- nating watching the changes and how information technology has revolutionised our expecta- tions of communications and entertainment in a way that none of us could possibly have imag- ined twenty-nine years ago...
To see individuals of such stature at the Award Ceremonies leaves lasting impressions...
You learn so much from meeting people who know how to do things, who are profession- als and who do things really well... which is why I think I enjoyed the Craft Awards so much. Such brilliant behind-the- scenes workers, and also meet- ing those in front of camera who obviously have completely dif- ferent forms of skills...
You have been extremely generous. You took on some- body who was very wet behind the ears still and you allowed me to become part of a growing industry at a very interesting time and it has been a pleasure... but I do think that twenty-nine, near- ly thirty, years is a long time to be in one place and I shall take great pleasure ”now in watching in real comfort.
“
This is a real treat which means I can go on using the Theatre to
come and watch films...
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